# Cabinet Conversion (Warning! Lot's of Pictures)



## Bear (Sep 22, 2007)

Hi Guys!
I have been bitten by the Cabinet Conversion Bug. Ever since I saw the piece KASR & Duck have, I knew I had to find something to replace my cooler with...

A little background:

My grandparents immigrated to Canada back in the 1920's. They didn't have much, but made a honest try of it. When the house they built burned to the ground they started from scratch again. Buying previously owned furniture goes without saying. When they bought this it was at least 30 years old and we know it was built in the 1890's.
My grandmother (she is still with us and will be 101 this March) was recently moved out of her own apartment and into an assisted living facility. Not having any use for her China cabinet she gave it to my dad. He didn't really have a use for it, but he wanted it to stay in the family...
I told him about what KASR had done with a piece and we decided that this would be a great way to keep the piece not only in the family, but to have it keep a practical use. We ran it by my Grandmother and she was all for it.
Here are some pictures of it before we started:



























My father has many fond memories of this piece of furniture from when he was just a little boy, so we decided against stripping & sanding and went with a good cleaning.

The next step was lining it with Spanish Cedar. The inside measurements are 36" x 37" x 13". This translated into over $130 worth of wood... I don't know if I got a good price or not, but either way, I'm OK with it.










Once we had it fully lined I put in the Hydra and a large dish of hot water to help bring up the RH. This step took over a week and we changed the water in the dish daily with boiling hot water to really help accelerate this step. (By the way, the boxes that were in there were empty and I was re-humidifying them as well to use as trays)




























The Cabinet is now at my house. I was going to put it in the basement, but my said it's too nice to put down where no one will see it. So it's on the main floor in the living room! 

Here it is with its new friends:





































I have to say this has been a lot of fun to work on with my father and I definitely like the idea of being the new keeper of a possible future heirloom. I don't know how much longer my Grandmother will be with us (recent health complications have kept her at the hospital), but it's nice to know that she got to see what became of that china cabinet she and her husband had bought all those decades ago...

Thanks for reading!


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## Snoman13 (May 8, 2007)

That looks amazing. Beautiful work, and the ability to keep it on the main floors a nice bonus!


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## Shaun Raney (Feb 1, 2008)

That is absolutely stunning.

It's great to see an heirloom take on another, as you said, more practical use.

If my parents ever get rid of this Hutch that they have in the living room, I will be making quite the humidor out of it.


How well does this seal in RH?


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## ja3480 (Nov 21, 2007)

Not bad at all. Something to be proud of. Love the flavors inside that I can see also. Nice set up!!!!


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## Old Sailor (Jul 27, 2006)

Great stuff Bear, Thanks for the pics:tu:tu


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## My371 (Jan 23, 2008)

Beautiful piece! Thanks for sharing!!:tu


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## AD720 (Jan 14, 2008)

I was also wondering if you did anything special to seal it up.


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## drhalle (Jul 24, 2007)

Great work. I know it is and will be something for the family to be proud of on though the next generations.:tu


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## moosebrew (Dec 8, 2006)

Great job! I love the idea of using a piece of furniture thats been in the family, make the story that much better. 

So how's it holding the humidity? Have the solid shelves been giving you any problems with air circulation?

keep up the great work
Mark


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## Conch Republican (Nov 21, 2007)

Old Sailor said:


> Great stuff Bear, Thanks for the pics:tu:tu


I am with the OLD guy!:ss


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## AuburnFan1980 (Jul 15, 2006)

Bear, thank you for sharing this awesome gesture with us! It has given me a bit of inspiration to possibly take on a project of the same magnitude, and it's great to know that your grandmother got to see the end product!

Jason


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## SR Mike (Feb 4, 2008)

That is awesome, I like that you did not redo the finish, only cleaned it up. You have given that family heirloom more stories to tell. :tu


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## shaggy (Dec 28, 2006)

looks good marc....better than you described it :tu


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## Lorglath (Aug 22, 2007)

Looks great!


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## smokeyscotch (Apr 26, 2007)

Very nice piece. You had a great canvas to start with there.:tu


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## Bear (Sep 22, 2007)

AD720 said:


> I was also wondering if you did anything special to seal it up.


We used gasket that would normally be used for sealing around an exterior door.



moosebrew said:


> So how's it holding the humidity? Have the solid shelves been giving you any problems with air circulation?


So far so good on the humidity front... Using the Hydra with about 2 lbs. of beads. Also have 3 oust fans to help circulation. As for the solid shelving, I had thought about drilling vent holes in them and haven't ruled that out yet. For now, the shelves are on an angle and that leaves a 1 1/2" gap at the front and 1/2" gap at the back.

I filled it with my stock today and like I said, so far so good...:tu


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## yazzie (Dec 1, 2007)

Very Cool, thanks for sharing :tu


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## ljh824 (Oct 14, 2007)

I see you have the London Flat humidor from Bombay. That was my very first humidor and I love it. The cabinet looks great, thanks for posting.


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## shilala (Feb 1, 2008)

Absolutely gorgeous. I love it!!!


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## gnukfu (Dec 19, 2007)

Wow!! Great job on the conversion.


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## rainman (Apr 13, 2007)

You did a fabulous job giving new life to the cabinet, and I love those smokes!


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## Diesel (Dec 15, 2007)

Extremely beautiful piece of furniture. Thanks for sharing the pictures.


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## CHRONO14 (Feb 4, 2008)

Wow thats beautiful. Never even thought of doing that. It's so simple and it makes sense. I may have to raid some family members houses to look for possible candidates. Thanks for sharing.


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## Darrell (Aug 12, 2007)

Man, I think that looks beautiful. :tu


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## str8edg (Dec 30, 2007)

Man, that looks great! You did great work, thanks for sharing it with us brother


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## awsmith4 (Jun 5, 2007)

Great looking piece, I hope to do something similar soon:tu


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## GWN (Jun 2, 2007)

Great work, Marc. What a way to make use of a family heirloom.
:tu


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## DeNeiro (Oct 28, 2007)

Buddy this is fantastic...and by the way I love your Grandmother...she is quite the lady!! I can't to come over to your house and do a little "Window shopping", easy access on the first floor...sounds great to me!!

Did I see some Paaaaarrrr-teeeeeeee-gaaaaaaaassss in there??

DeNeiro.
:ss


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## Tour De Cigar (Feb 26, 2007)

very very nice my man... you are ready set.. :tu.. thxs for sharing


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## Poriggity (Dec 8, 2005)

That is GREAT! I could only wish that I had something like that to do that with. I was at the Flea Market at the Rose Bowl today, and saw lots of stuff that would be PERFECT for a conversion, but I kept getting the evil look from my wife! 
Scott


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## hornitosmonster (Sep 5, 2006)

Very Nice...:tu


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## dunng (Jul 14, 2006)

Great job on bringing it back to life as somthing new! :ss


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## KASR (Aug 2, 2006)

Very awesome conversion! Way to go!!!


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## yourchoice (Jun 25, 2006)

That's awesome! Something you and yours will be talking about for years and years to come. :tu


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## SmokeyJoe (Oct 3, 2006)

Glad to hear it is holding humidity... wondered about that.

How cool that you got to do this project WITH your Dad! That is a neat memory that just increases the family heirloom status of a nice piece of furniture. Well done! :ss


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## Soprano3695 (Jul 16, 2007)

Nice conversion. Was the spanish cedar kiln dried? :tu


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## oceanelect4 (May 5, 2007)

great job there and now ill have to go to a few estate sales and see if anything is as interesting.


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## bobarian (Oct 1, 2007)

Mark, That looks fantastic. A great reuse of a family heirloom. I bet your grandmother is very proud or your work!:tu:tu:tu


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## sandsman1 (Nov 20, 2007)

what a great piece your very lucky to get it-- i hope you gave grammy an extra kiss for lettin you have it haha


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## Bear (Sep 22, 2007)

Soprano3695 said:


> Nice conversion. Was the spanish cedar kiln dried? :tu


Yes, the S.C. was kiln dried. That's why I chose to re-humidify with boiling hot water treatments. I can't recommend that method enough! The alternative of just trying to use the Hydra would have been maddeningly slow and would have had to re-fill it continuously.


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## jbo (Feb 16, 2007)

VERY good Bear. I congratulate you that is an amazing Cabinet!


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## RPB67 (Mar 26, 2005)

Looks like a great piece.

Nice work there ....:tu


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## jjirons69 (Jul 15, 2007)

Awesome! Great job. For less than $150 you've got a treasure to keep in the family.


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## daniyal (Oct 9, 2007)

That looks absolutely gorgeous bro!:tu May I recommend switching out the original shelves with spanish cedar (when the budget permits)? The cabinet by all means is an antique and you wouldn't want the original shelves wrapping due to humidity.


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## Bear (Sep 22, 2007)

daniyal said:


> That looks absolutely gorgeous bro!:tu May I recommend switching out the original shelves with spanish cedar (when the budget permits)? The cabinet by all means is an antique and you wouldn't want the original shelves wrapping due to humidity.


That's a great idea and definitely worth considering... I hadn't thought about that.


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## cigarlvr (Jan 13, 2008)

That is beautiful good luck with it. You would think it was made for Cigars to begin with.


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## RHNewfie (Mar 21, 2007)

That is awesome Marc! Great work!


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## dwhitacre (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice conversion job!!! Great Pictures!!!:tu


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